First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, picked up a library card, entertained a group of preschoolers, and checked out books on home decorating during a visit to her new local public library March 6.
Clinton’s new house is about a mile and a half from the Chappaqua (N.Y.) Library. Director Mark Hasskarl said he invited her to join the library, although “the story hour was her idea,” the Associated Press reported March 7.
Clinton’s campaign invited the press to watch as she read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar to 18 children and their parents and sang such songs as “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “Old MacDonald” with them. After her storytime, Clinton browsed the stacks, stopping to order three boxes of Girl Scout cookies from a young library patron.
As Clinton left the building, wearing a sticker that read “I got my library card today,” she promised the staff she’d be back—“without so many people.”
Posted March 13, 2000.